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There’s an interesting article over at Gamasutra that focuses on litigations that have changed the gaming industry. The purpose of the editorial is to highlight a few interesting cases and consider how they have changed the industry, including one court case having to do with player made mods.

The case involving this issue surrounded the game Duke Nukem 3D.3 Duke Nukem 3D was a first person shooter created by 3D Realms for the PC and released in 1996. The play style was similar to many other games of the period including Doom and Hexen. It was probably most memorable for Duke’s simultaneously pithy, charming, and offensive dialogue. The game was also one of the first to include a “Build Editor” that allowed users to create and trade their own user created levels. The game license included the statement that any user made levels could be given away, but not sold.

Read it all right here (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061218/boyd_01.shtml)

Navid

12-20-2006, 03:12 PM

yeah gamers need to get more involved in polotics.

staticblue

12-20-2006, 04:54 PM

Maybe this could lead to some kind of quality control so companies like Maddoc/Bethedas Studios can't put out crap like the Star Trek: Legacy's PC port. That game belongs next to ET and Superman 64. hehe.

There is definatly a lack of structure and consistanty on the customer side of the industry

Gaming really needs to leave the physical marketplace and movie to completely online. Everything downloaded. It is just something some would have to get used too.

Maybe gamers should form a consumer union of sorts. I doubt we could get that organized though. hehe

ammie

12-21-2006, 12:49 PM

Thank you an interesting article and I thought gold farmers were the biggest problem! Just shows whenever there is a crack in the wall, not only the light gets in!

Hats off to Breakout though!! :pirate:

Mack Bolan

12-21-2006, 01:59 PM

Great Article.

I was wondering, on the Trolls, shouldnt they show they have enough money in the bank incase they lose, so the company could recoup some of their legal expense

Optim

12-26-2006, 05:05 PM

justice is not just for the rich. There are laws in place to stop people who frivolously file lawsuits.

armsakimbo

12-27-2006, 08:52 PM

justice is not just for the rich. There are laws in place to stop people who frivolously file lawsuits.

Justice may not be "just for the rich", but it's a natural consequence of an adversarial system in which you are free to hire your own counsel and pay for your own investigation that the rich get to put a thumb on the scale. As for the laws to stop frivolous suits, they are extremely limited in application (lest they be subject to even worse abuses than those they are meant to stop) and rarely affect anybody other than those not clever enough to protect themselves from exposure.

Our legal system has a lot of mechanisms in place to try and make sure nobody is denied their day in court. Some of these mechanisms are abused by those other than the people they're meant to protect. *shrug* No ruleset can be perfect. Our legal system does an amazingly decent job considering how many clever people are attempting to abuse it all the time.

[On Topic]
I found the article interesting. It's a shame that so much of our business activity is so dependant on legal arcana, but I can't think of a better way to cope with the incredibly large number of people involved. As far as I can tell, there's nothing useful to be done other than change the rules from time to time when abuses are identified.

Atoyota

01-20-2007, 11:13 PM

Read it all

I did, thanks.... good read.

Patent trolls eh? :eek:

Ulfendar

01-21-2007, 06:08 PM

Great Article.

I was wondering, on the Trolls, shouldnt they show they have enough money in the bank incase they lose, so the company could recoup some of their legal expense

In many parts of the world that is true. In fact in some countries you have to put enough money to cover the defendants legal fees in an escrow account before you can go to trial. Some countries also have “loser pays” built into their system, so that a defendant doesn’t have to counter sue to recover legal fees, they automatically receive them if they win.

In theory, and especially when talking about Patent Trolls, these sound like great ideas, but there are some problems too. It makes it much harder for an individual, or small group, to sue a large corporation who is doing them legitimate harm.

I’m not a legal scholar, so I don’t pretend to know what the right answer is, but I do know that there aren’t any easy answers.

Suraknar

01-22-2007, 10:01 PM

I actually bought that "Nuke It" kit back then :P But then always wondered why we havent seen similar kits on the market, this does explain it.